Rather than a myopic focus on opioid prescription reduction, this article describes five strategies health care leaders can employ to implement a systems approach to timely and effective treatment of opioid use disorder, in tandem with pain assessment and management.

This article describes a comprehensive systems-focused approach to patient safety to achieve the goal of zero harm for patients, families, and the health care workforce. The approach includes four interdependent elements: the psychology of change, a culture of safety, an optimal learning system, and codesigning care and improvement with patients.

There are widespread inequities in health outcomes in the United States based on race, sex, language, and other factors. But there is no such thing as high-quality, safe care that is inequitable. Health systems can leverage patient-safety programs to advance equity.

Maternal mortality rates in the US are rising, particularly among black women. This article describes three things health care leaders can do to understand the contributing causes of mortality, including racism, and factors to reduce inequities and improve safety in maternal health.

A three-year qualitative study at an Australia hospital identifies valuable insights into factors influencing implementation of a multifaceted behavior change intervention to promote professionalism and build a culture of safety. The multiple interrelated factors impacting the hospital-wide intervention are discussed and analyzed.

This document provides hospital and health system administrators and leaders with specific improvement ideas for five system-level strategies that address the challenges of preventing, identifying, and treating opioid use disorder.

Creating and sustaining reliable processes to ensure health care quality and patient safety requires thoughtful planning and execution. This checklist of four steps will help ensure your systems are designed with reliability in mind. ​

This document offers selected resources for clinicians and health care administrators to take action on opioid and pain management and opioid use disorder (OUD), organized into three categories: Patient Assessment, Intervention, and Treatment; Provider Training and Support; and Strategy and Planning.

This white paper presents an actionable framework with the core processes needed for effective board governance of all dimensions of health system quality; an assessment tool; and support guides for three central knowledge areas for trustee oversight of quality.

This article provides an assessment of IHI’s Project JOINTS initiative, a multistate QI campaign to promote adoption of evidence-based practices to reduce surgical site infections (SSIs) following hip and knee arthroplasty.

September 13, 2018 | The ground is shifting for prescription medication. There’s much talk and publicity about deprescribing, the process that entails taking patients off some of their medications or tapering down the dosages.

Reflecting on lessons from 10 years of the IHI Open School, this article shares five practical ideas for how can health care organizations can engage the next generation of health professionals as powerful change agents and leaders.

Learn about Scotland’s 10-year effort to apply quality improvement on a national scale to improve patient safety, including an in-depth review of the successful Scottish Patient Safety Programme, and further QI efforts that spread across Scotland into new social policy areas such as children’s services, education, and justice.

This IHI Innovation Report discusses barriers to integrating behavioral health in the ED, and presents five drivers (emerging from six key themes from existing approaches) that form the building blocks of a theory of change for making improvements in this area.​

April 5, 2018 | The safety huddle​ has become an important way for hospitals to surface safety concerns affecting patients and the workforce. But what does it mean for patient safety when it becomes just another meeting?